Twitch Is Testing Watch Parties

Twitch appears to be ushering in another new feature now that watch parties are being tested. This new feature brings Twitch even closer to its parent company, Amazon, by allowing groups of viewers to get together and watch content found on Amazon Prime Video. An invitation to preview the feature is currently being extended to select content creators on Twitch, and if it comes to fruition soon and is rolled out to everyone, it'll mark one feature off many users' wish lists.

The news of what Twitch is simply calling "Watch Parties" first surfaced on social media as content creator shared screenshots of an email they'd received. That email alerted them to the testing period of the Watch Parties feature and invited select people to come try out the feature first before it's publicly available to everyone else.

Two screenshots of those messages can be seen in the tweet below from Twitter user and Twitch content creator Travis Shreffler.

"Watch Parties brings Prime Video to Twitch," the message said. "You can watch a selection of Prime Video movies and TV shows on your channel with any of your viewers who have Prime, including the new season of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, and Pokemon. This is a new way for you to engage with your community around great content that you can stream with your viewers."

Twitch is testing out Watch Parties, which allows streamers to stream Amazon Prime Video content that will be viewable only to viewers who have Amazon Prime

This email is going out to select streamers now. What do you think? pic.twitter.com/uaKYmu1MnU

— Travis Shreffler (@TravisShreffler) October 18, 2019

It's expected that we'll see more content than just those three options listed above, but Twitch says it's beginning the Watch Parties testing with "a limited catalog." The selection will be refreshed and expanded, so it sounds like we'll definitely see more content added with some options possibly being rotated out at some point.

The arrival of Watch Parties is preceded by many requests from Twitch users who've been asking for such a feature to be added for some time. While it's not uncommon for streamers to show quick videos or clips and commentate on them, streaming content directly to enjoy with your viewers involves the high risk of wading into copyright issues. This sort of feature would give content creators a way to watch this approved content without having to worry about that and will give them a way to further diversify their schedule. Stream games throughout the week, for example, and have Friday or another day during the weekend as a movie night with your viewers.

Twitch's Watch Parties are currently being tested, so look for the feature to roll out to more users soon.

Thanks, Polygon.